That's what Horace Perry says. He and his wife, Pearl, have owned Stateline Fireworks, one of the stores open year-round off Interstate 20 near the Georgia border at exit 210, since 1989. That puts it about halfway between Atlanta and Anniston.

They began selling fireworks when they co-owned a convenience store a little further back on the Interstate. Now they run the store with their daughter, Karen Norman.

Given their proximity to one of the main traffic arteries in the state, they get shoppers from all over. On any given day, license plates in the parking lot represented Alabama and Georgia. Just this week, someone stopped in from Oklahoma. The week of Independence Day is their biggest of the year, followed by New Year's Day.

Styles change in fireworks, but tastes stay the same. Customers like colors, Pearl said, though not necessarily red, white and blue.

The big seller this year is the Excalibur, a reloadable mortar that shoots bursts about 200 feet into the air. Prices can run from $15 to $100, depending on how many a customer wants to fire off. Shells range from one to three pops, requiring a single fuse.

There's also the 500-gram cake, a package that only requires one fuse to set off multiple charges of colored bursts. It gets its name from how much gunpowder is used. These packages can cost anywhere from $20 to $100, once again, depending on how many bursts you want.

There are also much larger packages that feature combinations of the two, in case someone wants to pay several hundred dollars for a show that looks like a commercial fireworks display.

And there are the old standbys -- Roman candles, bottle rockets, fountains and firecrackers.

As with all fireworks, the secret to using them safely is common sense and following the directions. Children should be kept away from the area. Norman said customers who purchase the Excalibur should station the mortar within a cinderblock or between two bricks to prevent it from tilting.

"That way it can't tip over," she said. "And we always tell people to put them on a flat surface that's not grass or gravel."